2023-10-12
The Ukrainian Association for Jewish Studies is heartbroken and outraged by the bloody events that began in Israel on October 7 and continue to this day.
We vehemently condemn the unspeakably barbaric actions of the Hamas terrorists and those that supported and enabled them. These actions cannot in any way be justified by the Palestinian Arabs’ desire for statehood but only discredit the Palestinian movement in the eyes of the civilized world.
Numerous attacks on peaceful Israelis, torture, kidnapping, and inhumane murder of women and men, elderly people and children—these are disgraceful manifestations of extremism, cruelty, and decades-long antisemitic propaganda among Palestinian Arabs, promoting the idea of destroying the State of Israel and encouraging acts of terrorism alien to the tenets of Islam. We are equally appalled by HAMAS’s calls for global antisemitism, and encouragement of worldwide pogroms against Jewish people.
Ukrainians, like no one else, are painfully familiar with the horrors that the democratically elected State of Israel, along with its people and policies of governance, are experiencing today. In our view, there can be no place for terrorism in this world. Those who commit such acts against humanity, like the Russian Federation, Iran, HAMAS, Hezbollah, or Islamic Jihad, must be condemned and punished harshly.
In these times, we all join in prayers and thoughts for our friends in the State of Israel, particularly colleagues who work in the field of Jewish Studies. We express our deepest condolences to the families of the deceased. We hope for the speedy recovery of the wounded and the return to their homes of the hostages kidnapped by the terrorists.
!עם ישראל חי
